Water-soluble tooling materials for complex polymer composite parts and honeycombs and manufacturing processes such as filament winding and VARTM have been developed. This material is available either in paste (Aquacore~?), castable and machinable forms (Aquapour~? andAquapour~? premium) or in a form that can be packed into a mold (Aquacore~? premium andAquacore~? 8000 and 9000 series) and consists of a thermally resistant polymer blended with ceramic microspheres and/or quartz sand and plaster in the case of the castable version. After fabrication, the Aquacore~?, Aquacore~? premium and Aquapour~? premium materials may be machined to net shape using conventional machine and hand tools. Additionally, large parts may be fabricated by machining smaller pieces and joining them together to form the final shape. All the above tooling materials could be repaired and sealed to provide needed surface finish for the tool using environmentally friendly sealants and release agents. Previously, these tooling materials were used for polymer composite fabrication at temperatures up to 380°F for epoxy matrix resins. Current efforts have been directed towards fabricating complex geometry shapes using VARTM of high temperature resins such as BMI and epoxies as well as sandwich composite structures. This paper describes the thermo-physical properties of the tooling materials as well as examples of complex-geometry composite parts fabricated using the tooling materials.
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